Hostage Negotiation Team

Training, patience, and time... that's what it takes to talk a barricaded suspect out of a house without harming themselves or the deputies responding to a call for help or talking a person who sees no future from jumping off a highway overpass.

The agency's team of active Hostage Negotiators respond to incidents as needed. Their calls can range from talking a female bank robber holding 15 hostages in the bank's vault into freeing her captives and giving up, to talking a distraught man who had lost his job and was threatening to jump off a bridge into getting help. Clearly, the team saves lives.

In 2015, the Hostage Negotiation Team responded to six incidents and worked collaboratively with SWAT to deal with armed barricaded subjects who were either intent on committing suicide, were a fugitive from justice, or had intent on harming others, which created dangerous environments with a propensity for physical violence.

The Hostage negotiators receive monthly training, preparing themselves to diffuse such incidents in their attempts to bring about a peaceful resolution.

The HNT also participates in large scale training exercises with the Sheriff’s Office SWAT, EOD, CIMT, UPD, Intel, and other components of the HRIC section. The training exercise can consist of a simulated terrorism event with multiple targets in an effort to plan, prepare, and train for a terrorism event against our County’s citizens, or visitors including our expansive tourist corridor.

In 2015, the Hostage Negotiation Team responded to six incidents and worked collaboratively with SWAT to deal with armed barricaded subjects who were either intent on committing suicide, were a fugitive from justice, or had intent on harming others, which created dangerous environments with a propensity for physical violence.

The Hostage negotiators receive monthly training, preparing themselves to diffuse such incidents in their attempts to bring about a peaceful resolution.

The HNT also participates in large scale training exercises with the Sheriff’s Office SWAT, EOD, CIMT, UPD, Intel, and other components of the HRIC section. The training exercise can consist of a simulated terrorism event with multiple targets in an effort to plan, prepare, and train for a terrorism event against our County’s citizens, or visitors including our expansive tourist corridor.